Taping a spine
- Thread starter Jsteele
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Taping a spine is an option but not a necessity. If you have a worked spine that you wish to preserve, gold wash, want to increase the bevel angle by approximately 1 degree, or if you just want to keep it looking minty, you can do it. The only time that I would say that it "needs" to be done is one a wedge or if you have a lot of restorative honing to do. Good luck
There's no "correct" way to do it that I know of. I just cut a piece of electrical tape about 3" long, and run it down the length of the spine, then wrap it around to the sides with my thumb and forefinger. Snip the excess off with a pair of scissors, and start honing away. For big 8/8 razors, or razors with tall diamond-shapes spines sometimes I use two pieces, one on each side. Doesn't really matter, you just want a piece of tape covering the honing flats on each side of the spine.
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Just make sure the tape is nice and flat where it contacts the hone and you are good to go.
This and make sure that all of the flats where the spine contacts the stone is covered by taping... There is a "wrong" way to do it (especially true on a wedge). Thank you, Bart
Very true! Thanks for pointing that out Paul.
Paul, the diagrams are very helpful.
The other thing you really shouldn't do is alternate. Once you switch, you should always use tape.
Using the diagrams, you can draw the new bevel that will be achieved with the tape and you can see that quite a lot of metal is removed to develop a full new bevelled edge. Now draw a third line of were the new bevel will be if you switch back to not using tape. Notice by how much the width of the blade has been reduced by.
That is the principal reason I don't recommend using tape.
The other thing you really shouldn't do is alternate. Once you switch, you should always use tape.
Using the diagrams, you can draw the new bevel that will be achieved with the tape and you can see that quite a lot of metal is removed to develop a full new bevelled edge. Now draw a third line of were the new bevel will be if you switch back to not using tape. Notice by how much the width of the blade has been reduced by.
That is the principal reason I don't recommend using tape.
While you are correct, and as you pointed out, if you are consistent, that's not as much of an issue. Additionally, when you know how to maintain a razor with stropping for months and months, it doesn't really matter if you alternate techniques every time you hone because a single razor could last someone who isn't hone-happy a couple of lifetimes
I totally agree.
Interestingly, I have had one true 100% wedge. No hollow on the blade at all.
It was almost impossible to hone because it was reliant upon perfectly flat hones. I taped it and the blade actually rocked on the edge of the tape. The tape edge became the fulcrum point or the bevel.
On wedges with a very slight hollowing, you can find the same fulcrum point will occur if you use two or three layers of tape basically lifting the old bevel off the hone altogether.
As you hone, the tape wares thin, lowering the blade onto the old covered bevel. If you look at the edge, you will see it isn't flat but curved much like the curve you get from stropping on pasted hanging strops.
You have to be a lot more careful with tape. But it does have its uses in the right hands.
I'm conviced in my own mind that the old wedges were honed more like a carving knife. I say this because they rarely exhibit spine bevels or at least bevels indicateing heavy useage, despite the fact you can see the razor has had lots of use.
Interestingly, I have had one true 100% wedge. No hollow on the blade at all.
It was almost impossible to hone because it was reliant upon perfectly flat hones. I taped it and the blade actually rocked on the edge of the tape. The tape edge became the fulcrum point or the bevel.
On wedges with a very slight hollowing, you can find the same fulcrum point will occur if you use two or three layers of tape basically lifting the old bevel off the hone altogether.
As you hone, the tape wares thin, lowering the blade onto the old covered bevel. If you look at the edge, you will see it isn't flat but curved much like the curve you get from stropping on pasted hanging strops.
You have to be a lot more careful with tape. But it does have its uses in the right hands.
I'm conviced in my own mind that the old wedges were honed more like a carving knife. I say this because they rarely exhibit spine bevels or at least bevels indicateing heavy useage, despite the fact you can see the razor has had lots of use.
I always thought the same thing but the last couple of wedges I picked up had noticeable hone wear. Maybe these ones were used more recently and honed like a hollow ground razor?
There's a great series of videos of Kenrup from ruprazor completely restoring the bevel on a W&B Chopper (big wedge) on youtube. He uses 4-5 pieces of tape at once and changes the top layer about halfway through the initial bevel-setting stage because the top had worn a little and wanted to stay consistant.
You can get there by searching "kenrup resto" or clicking here: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=870AD9656C44E576&search_query=kenrup+resto&rclk=pti
Fascinating stuff. I was watching the videos here at work with headphones and a co-worker looking over my shoulder thought it was the most boring thing he'd ever seen; I couldn't disagree more -- I love this stuff. Ken displayed his wealth of knowledge and experience effortlessly and has made me even that much more grateful I ordered his gold dollar combo. And even though I'm 6+ months away before honing anything myself, everything he showed and said gets added to the reference library.
Now I just have to wait for it to get here so I can learn to shave.
You can get there by searching "kenrup resto" or clicking here: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=870AD9656C44E576&search_query=kenrup+resto&rclk=pti
Fascinating stuff. I was watching the videos here at work with headphones and a co-worker looking over my shoulder thought it was the most boring thing he'd ever seen; I couldn't disagree more -- I love this stuff. Ken displayed his wealth of knowledge and experience effortlessly and has made me even that much more grateful I ordered his gold dollar combo. And even though I'm 6+ months away before honing anything myself, everything he showed and said gets added to the reference library.
Now I just have to wait for it to get here so I can learn to shave.
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